Clear Ink Base: seems to work with Canon bubblejet print head as well.....

[Ink stained Fingers]

There are a few reports about fungus/yeast infection on this forum

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...f-the-international-business.9735/#post-79909

but it happens overall at a very rare instance, it could happen if a refill process is not straight and clean, e.g. you fill ink from a large bottle into a smaller bottle and you do refill from there into cartridges; if you use syringes which you don't clean for a long time and you fill back leftover ink from the small bottle into the large bottle because you switch ink types so you may have infected the ink in the larger bottle and you let it grow there for the next 6 months. Spores are airborne, so multiple handling and opening the bottles etc poses an infection risk; it's rather theoretical, it happens very rarely but I have a fungus sample in a yellow ink bottle, and I keep it there , it is growing veeery slowly and I may go and get a DNA analysis one day .............

P.S. I don't think the gelification of your magenta ink was caused this way but who knows. I have seen such effect long time ago with refill inks into Canon cartridges a few times.

 

[nertog]

Did you tried to make your own clear ink base as well ?

Yes, mainly for pigment inks. I found Paul Roark's ink base an excellent starting point (https://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Ink-Mixing.pdf), although I found using less glycerin and more PEG 600 to deliver better droplets, especially in more fussy printers. I used a silicone-based surfactant instead of the commercial rinsing solutions proposed in the pdf. The same mixture, but diluted with water to get a lower viscosity works in thermal printheads but I had the same issues as with 3rd party inks: microbanding after a few 100 prints on new printheads. A lot of literature cites N-methyl-pyrrolidone to prevent kogation. I never tried it because I use piezo printheads only nowadays. Simple alcohols such as ethanol or isopropyl alcohol are things I try to keep out of the inks as well because they typically don't play nice with many plastics (did see some bleeding on RC papers after a few weeks with certain dye inks...so they might be needed after all). Happy experimenting!

 

[soysauce]

Yes, mainly for pigment inks. I found Paul Roark's ink base an excellent starting point (https://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Ink-Mixing.pdf), although I found using less glycerin and more PEG 600 to deliver better droplets, especially in more fussy printers. I used a silicone-based surfactant instead of the commercial rinsing solutions proposed in the pdf. The same mixture, but diluted with water to get a lower viscosity works in thermal printheads but I had the same issues as with 3rd party inks: microbanding after a few 100 prints on new printheads. A lot of literature cites N-methyl-pyrrolidone to prevent kogation. I never tried it because I use piezo printheads only nowadays. Simple alcohols such as ethanol or isopropyl alcohol are things I try to keep out of the inks as well because they typically don't play nice with many plastics (did see some bleeding on RC papers after a few weeks with certain dye inks...so they might be needed after all). Happy experimenting!

What was the specific silicone-based surfactant that worked for you?
N-methyl-p


I have had some success starting with Paul Roark's base as well. I have tried NMP (n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone) more as a solvent than as an anti-kogation additive. I am glad I am not using NMP because the according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "NMP presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health under its conditions of use." They are taking steps towards getting rid of it in paints and paint removers so I prefer not to work with it.

 

[soysauce]

Today I tested my Clear Ink Base I posted at the Epson section and I was brave enough to refill some old 570 cartridges who where completely dried up with a mix of 30 parts of Fujifilm Drylabs ink and 70 parts of my CIB mixture and put them into my Canon IP-7250 printer for the magenta and cyan position:

I used my light magenta/light cyan mix that I do not use anymore because I sold my Epson 1500W:

View attachment 14629

View attachment 14630

View attachment 14631

And this is the result of the nozzle check (the PGB black was a bit clogged but that was pigment ink, but the cyan and magenta position with my mixture of Fujifilm Drylabs and CIB is perfect:

View attachment 14632

I printed a picture too with a profile made for Inktec left picture: Cyan and Magenta filled with LM/LC made from Fujifilm Drylabs and CIB base and right picture with pure CLI-8 compatible ink from Inktec (all other colours: Yellow and PB were always Inktec):

View attachment 14633


As expected the left picture with the light colours (LM/LC) will give less vivid magenta and cyan, but you can see the ink mixture of Fujifilm Drylabs and my CIB works perfectly in Canon bubblejet print heads too and no clogging at all. Ink seems to be plenished fast enough through the nozzles and there was no pooling at all (Netbit Glossy 300 gsm paper from Aldi). Both pictures were printed with the same profile just to see how the two inks behave. As expected the magenta and the cyan was less intense on the left picture, but print quality was the same.

That looks great! It will be interested to see if there are any issues with nozzles clogging after the printer sits idle for a long time if the ethanol and isopropanol evaporate. Some Canon inks seem to have a lot of stable humectants such that a drop placed on glass never really dries out if I recall correctly. Thank you very much for sharing your experiences.

 

[pharmacist]

HI Soysauce,

Actually I took out the cartridges and leaving them to dry during a period in open air to see how the cartridges behave when a part of the solution dried up inside the sponge (since I only refilled the sponge by dripping ink onto the 550 cartridges). This way I can test them later one and see how they behave when the CIB will be partially evaporated.

 

[nertog]

What was the specific silicone-based surfactant that worked for you?

BYK-348

 

[soysauce]

BYK-348

 

[soysauce]

Thanks